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	Individual Details		Individual Details

Age:	21
Died:	20th Jun 1862
Accident:	20th Jun 1862
Year Born:	abt. 1841
Colliery:	Cassop, A Pit
Company:	R. P. Philipson
Occupation:	Hewer
Notes:	unmarried, killed by an explosion of gas
Buried:	[not known]
Category:

The accident No. 26 in the detailed list, an explosion of fire-damp, caused the death of George Richardson, un unmarried man, 21 years of age, who was employed as a coal hewer in the main coal seam of the A pit at Cassop Colliery.

He was employed in one of a pair of exploring places called cross-cuts, in the west way, a district in progress of exploration, and generating a considerable amount of fire-damp, but not to the extent of preventing its being generally worked with candles. On the morning of the explosion it appears that the particular cross-cut in which he usually worked was found, by the deputy-overman who examined it previous to the commencement of the day's work, to contain, next to the face or extremity, a small accumulation of fire-damp, in consequence of which he retired from the part containing the fire-damp and erected a danger signal to warn persons not to go into it ; after which, in the presence of some of his fellow workmen, he warned Richardson of the presence of the fire-damp, and directed him to work that day at making an opening or stenting for the passage of the air between his own cross-cut and its partner, the other — an operation calculated to improve the ventilation, and remove the fire-damp.

Richardson appears to have commenced to work in the stenting, but after working for some time, and on requiring the use of a shovel, he, in direct opposition to the instructions of the deputy-overman, and in contravention of the special rules of the colliery, left the stenting where he was working, and, with an unprotected flame for a light, proceeded to, and passing the danger signal, went into the cross-cut amongst the fire-damp to procure his shovel. As a matter of course the fire-damp exploded at his naked light, and unfortunately scorched him so much that after lingering about three weeks he died from its effects.

The second general rule of the Act for the Regulation and Inspection of Mines, 23rd and 24th Vict. C. 151 runs as follows :— 2. "All entrances to any place not in actual course of working and extension, and suspected to contain dangerous gas of any kind, shall be properly fenced off so as to prevent access thereto." A rule which by some persons might be understood to imply that in the case just described Richardson's cross-cut ought to have been so fenced off as to have prevented him from gaining access to it on the day of the explosion, when it was not only suspected but ascertained and known to contain dangerous gas ; and that consequently a mere danger signal admitting of persons passing it was not all that is required by this rule ; an idea which presented itself to my own mind when I heard of the occurrence.

Whether this rule was intended to apply to places the working and extension of which are temporarily suspended, owing to the presence of fire-damp or from any other cause, of whether it was only intended to apply to places indefinitely abandoned or permanently suspended from working and extension, may admit of dispute ; but under the circumstances, and with my doubts as to the meaning of the rule in the particular aspect just mentioned, I did not deem it prudent to proceed against the deputy-overman or the owner of agent of the colliery for a breach of the rule.

• 1862 Mines Inspectors Report
• 1862 Mines Inspectors Report, Southern District by John J. Atkinson, H.M. Inspector of Mines, Page: 23, Accident Number: 26

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